The Gate, Islington

Last Monday, Stew and I spent our evening dining at The Gate, in Islington. This beautiful restaurant, located a short walk from Angel underground station, serves a range of vegan, vegetarian, nut free and gluten free dishes. Something that can be hard to find, even in a city as diverse as London.

Although we are not vegetarian, we do enjoy eating and cooking vegetarian meals. Very often we will find ourselves going for the veggie option on a menu, as we’re always keen to try new things. This being said, I have only ever dined at two vegetarian based cafés before, with my best friend who happens to be vegan. Since living with her for a year, and being friends for as long as I can remember, she has introduced a range of delicious foods and new ways of cooking to me. I know that she would love The Gate and I can’t wait to take her there on her next visit.

For an appetiser we chose the mixed olives, and then for starter I opted for their Courgette Flower. Whilst in Australia I had seen this advertised on a few menus but never tried it. So I was very intrigued to see what it would taste like. The flower itself was filled with sweet potato, goats cheese, pine nuts and basil, and the entire thing lightly fried. It was deliciously warm and soft, with just the right amount of cheese so that it wasn’t too rich. It was served with a puy lentil salsa and a garlic and lemon aioli.

Stew chose the Grilled Halloumi in Chermula, which was served with a pomegranate salsa, roasted red onions, peppers and harissa. Both dishes had fantastic flavour, but I have to say I think I made the winning choice!

For mains we Stew chose the Corn Cake, which I really want to try and make for ourselves. This incorporated a wide range of vegetables including, grilled baby artichoke, fennel, courgette, tomato and pepper. It was served with a chipotle black bean salsa, coriander dressing and schoog (a spicy sauce).

I made another strong choice, opting for the one dish on their menu that I had never heard of before – the Butternut Rotolo. This was roasted butternut, goats cheese (I can’t get enough) and basel in a baked thyme infused rolled potato, and was served with a tomato and caper salsa in a lemon butter sauce. The flavours were exceptional on this dish! It was like nothing either of us had tasted before and I can’t recommend it enough. I saw lots of people ordering it, so it must be a popular dish.

Finally, although both feeling very full, we couldn’t resist trying The Gate’s Pear and Rhubarb Crumble. Crumble is like my all time favourite dessert, so I was super happy that this was on the menu. We chose to have it with crème anglaise, but to make it vegan you can have their vegan Chantilly cream. Another dessert that caught my eye was there Lemon Grass, Lime Leaf and Coconut Cheese Cake, which I’ll have to try next time we go.

All in all The Gate is a fantastic restaurant, not just for vegetarians, but for anyone that has a love for food and is interested in trying something different. It’s a great place to eat food that you would not normally make yourself at home. The prices are reasonable for London, and the restaurant itself has a great ambience. I would recommend booking in advance, as it was pretty busy for a Monday night. Clearly it’s popular!